Controlled elk hunting for the Chandler Mountain unit near Sweet Home has been too successful, area hunters and landowners told the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife during an annual meeting held here Thursday.
The hunt, initiated a few years ago in response to extensive damage to property including fences, trees and other crops, has resulted in a greatly decreased herd, Will High, ODFW biologist was told.
Although some at the meeting wanted to see the hunt disbanded entirely, High said it would be more prudent to reduce the number of tags available. At one time, nearly 60 tags were available. That has since declined to about 30 tags. It was suggested that number be dropped to 10 or 15. It takes up to four years to get a hunt back into activity, High said, while decreasing the allowable tag numbers can do much in terms of reducing harvest levels.
This season, there was a 24% success rate (eight animals reported harvested) in the Chandler Mountain unit.
Property damage remains an issue, said landowner Robin Miller, who passed out a photo of a tree girdled by elk. Miller owns 120 acres of Douglas fir trees near Crawfordsville and said the elk are a consistant issue.
They rip the young trees from the ground, chew up protective netting and girdle growing trees.
At one point in recent years, elk numbers were at least 200 within the Chandler Mountain hunt area, participants aid. That number has dwindled.
High said some of those elk may have migrated to an area between Lebanon and Sweet Home where a landowner has closed off hunting on several acres. Numerous elk have migrated to the site.
Those elk may have been a part of the Scott Mountain unit which previously had been a muzzle loading hunt only. Participants said the muzzle loading process was ineffective and should be replaced with a center fire hunt.
Elk and deer populations are coming under increasing pressures, High said, since numerous nunts are underway at any time from August to well into February. How this increased pressure impacts the animals isn’t completely known. he said.
Richard Rounds, who lives on Whiskey Butte, said “there aren’t any deer left in the high country.”
“I haven’t seen an elk on Whiskey Butte in three years,” Rounds said. “The problem was four years ago but we still have hunts left. The Chandler Mountain hunt is an overkill. You’ve beaten it to death.”
Rounds’ sentiments were echoed by Ed Graville who farms near Holley.
“It’s overkill,” Graville said. “The season is too long, too broad. I say you should let the guys with problems take care of those problems right there on the spot.”
Graville said he would like to see doe season stopped for a while on all federal lands and the general hunting season cut back by a week or so to give animal populations a chance to increase.
There was a general concensus that the number of deer in the area is falling.
High said he and other biologists have been studying the problem of sick deer since 1998. They are noticing deer with huge patches of lost hair and lice. He called the sickness Chronic Wasting Disease.
“Is this as dangerous as Mad Cow Disease?” High queried. “We don’t know. Mad Cow Disease causes holes in the brain. There’s no information that Chronic Wasting Disease is transferrable to humans.”
High said the disease is appearing from as far south as Ashland to Tillamook to the north and from coast to Cascades.
“It does seem to be hitting harder in some places than others,” he said. “Some deer are nearly bald from self-mutilation (itching themselves due to lice.)
High said bioligists are sure whether the parasites that cause the problems go away or have a cumulative effect year after year.
Looking at data compiled over the last 15 years, High said fewer and fewer antlerless deer are being harvested each year.
“Every unit in western Oregon is showing a decline in buck harvest,” he said. He added there doesn’t seem to be any clear pattern as to why.
For example, the Alsea unit was heavily hunted but the rate of animal decline was slower than in other, less heavily hunted, units.
“We really need another year or so to analyze this,” High said. “There’s a possibility that it is something that isn’t solvable. Maybe it’s a natural cycle. Maybe it has to do with habitat issues. Maybe it’s because they’re not using hounds to hunt cougars anymore.”
High said bear and cougars need to be aggressively hunted.